Review: Renegades

This is a spoiler-free review. I will not be giving away any major plot details beyond the premise of the book.

Renegades is the latest book by bestselling author, Marissa Meyer, who is best known for her Lunar Chronicles series. Renegades is the first book in a duology, set in a fictional city called Gatlon, and revolves around teenage superheroes. To give you the best possible understanding of what this book is about, I’ll include the official blurb…

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew. Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to the villains who have the power to end them both.

I want to start off by saying that I love Marissa Meyer’s books. She’s easily my favourite author, and her Lunar Chronicles series is my favourite series of all time. And with Renegades, she has done it once again! As always, her plot is thick, her characters fly off the page, and her writing is sharp and aesthetically pleasing. She tackles issues that young people face in their everyday lives, such as having to make tough choices, dealing with parental expectations, and most importantly: questioning the difference between right and wrong – something that everybody struggles with from time to time.

As the book progresses, the plot continues to thicken. The story focuses on Nova going undercover, joining the Renegades herself to bring them down from the inside. From there, she continues to find out more about the organisation’s secrets while simultaneously trying to make sure they don’t figure out who she is. Adrian has secrets of his own, and as he and Nova grow close to one another, a spark begins to appear between them. But this isn’t a romance novel. There’s a definite connection between Nova and Adrian, but no over-the-top, unrealistic teen love that makes you want to roll your eyes.

Marissa Meyer has created characters that feel real – that don’t always understand themselves how they feel. Apart from Nova and Adrian, there is an entire cast of supporting characters that all contribute to the story. But Nova easily shines above all others. She is the ultimate anti-hero, doing things that are seemingly wrong, and yet you can’t help but consider maybe she is onto something. While reading this book, I was rooting for Nova, even though she is, in most ways, the villain. Right from the first chapter, you understand why she hates the Renegades, and how she was raised to see them as the enemy.

Meyer’s writing is stunning. She manages to write third-person chapters that sometimes follow Nova and other times follow Adrian, and yet but they each have a distinctive voice. This isn’t easy to do, but Meyer pulls it off. She’s clear, witty, and builds her world so perfectly without using over-description or unnecessary exposition. The action scenes were fun and exciting, the dialogue felt real, and the narration brought the characters to life. With each turn of the page, the plot became more intriguing. The one negative thing I will say is that sometimes the story was predictable, but at the same time, there were enough surprises to balance it out. The book was left open-ended, with a cliffhanger that has now left me desperately counting down the days until the release of Book 2 in November 2018.

MY RATING: 10/10

READ IF YOU ENJOYED:The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa MeyerWarcross by Marie Lu

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